Saturday 26 November 2011

Teaching English in Malaysia... God help us!

Tan Sri,
This letter from a student himself, Just a mangled form . . . surely stands out from the mangled mess of 'statistics' and 'surveys' that were conducted by all parties for and against the PPSMI issue.

The fact that most if not all technical terms have been translated from English, to me, is the tipping point in the argument that English should be used to continue teaching Malaysian students in Science and Mathematics.

Another very pertinent revelation that can be gleaned from the letter is the fact that we are teaching English the wrong way, without regard to grammar at all. This is even a more important issue to address. Having literature lessons, compulsory passes in the language, and mandatory book reading are steps in the right direction,, provided we do take them.

We all have our political reasons to support or to denigrate the issue, but from the "user's", ie the student's perspective, they are the victims of bad decisions, not their political masters. They will suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives. Most of our current day students have already been "damaged beyond repair", let us not perpetuate the issue.

Please look at this issue beyond politics, beyond race and above bigotry.

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